Finance Minister bemoans IST instability, tasks new chairman on efficiency

Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

ECONOMY

TRACKING___The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, has bemoaned the instability in the Investments and Securities Tribunal (IST) for last five years to date.

Speaking while swearing-in the new Chairman, Barr. Azi Isaac, in Abuja, yesterday, she noted that the instability in the agency had negatively impacted its roles in the national’s capital market.

Ahmed, therefore, charged the new Board and management to give the organization a new narrative.

Her words, “The tribunal has in the last five years suffered many setbacks due largely to poor administration. These setbacks have blurred, if not completely wiped out, whatever modest achievements the Tribunal might have recorded in its adjudicatory role.

“We may recall that in November, 2015, the Tribunal was dissolved and the Chairman and its members relieved of their jobs. A new panel of the tribunal, which includes many of the members here seated, was inaugurated in 2017.

“Again, barely two years into your tenor, the chairman of the tribunal was removed. The problems with the tribunal had been infighting amongst members, lack of industrial harmony and a series of complaints bordering on mal-administration. These have been the bane of the tribunal and source of embarrassment, not only to the ministry but the federal government.”

In view of the challenges, Ahmed, while highlighting the chairman’s responsibility, said, “Let me stress here, that the chairman’s responsibility is to provide good leadership that would galvanise the human and material resources at the tribunal’s disposal on the path of stability towards achieving its mandate in a consistent manner.

“I call on all members of the IST to cooperate with the new chairman, so that the vision of the tribunal which is ‘to be a world class capital market tribunal that is fair and transparent, dispensing justice without fear or favour,’ can be attained.”